Rain causes fire at Golden Dragon in Walderslade shopping centre

An electrical fire broke out under stairs at a shopping centre during torrential rain and caused a Chinese take-away to close early.

Firefighters were called out to the Walderslade Village Centre, after its electrical supply got wet during the rain and cables began sparking.

The supply, which was under stairs behind the shops, got waterlogged and started to spark and caught fire at about 9.40pm.

Firefighters from Medway and Strood were called out to the scene and did what they could to suppress the flames until UK Power Network engineers could get to the site in Walderslade Road, Chatham, to turn off the supply altogether.

Cutting the power supply meant the The Golden Dragon Chinese take-away had to close early.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service, said: “The electrical wires in the ground had become waterlogged and were sparking and a fire broke out as a result.

“We could only suppress the fire to make sure it didn’t spread further until the main power supply to the centre was turned off.

“After the supply was isolated and we put the fire out the engineers stayed on site to fix the problem and get the power restored.

“We were there for about an hour and a half to make sure there was no danger to anyone.”

The next day UK Power Networks were still at the scene working on the repairs.

One pensioner who lives nearby and didn’t want to be named, said: “I went down to the Co-op this morning and there was four UK Power Network vans there.

“It looked like the engineers had to dig up the ground to repair the problem completely, but it looked like the shops in the centre were open as usual.”